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The chill of 2010 just keeps rolling along, but there is some light at the end of this cold tunnel. The surface high was located to our northwest this morning with a long wave trough positioned over the East Coast of the US. This pattern continued to keep us in the deep freeze with morning temperatures generally 13 to 18 across Central Alabama with some spots dipping into single digits for lows. Today, with a combination of sun and clouds along with a few snow flurries, we will experience another brutally cold day with highs only reaching the middle and upper 20s across the area.
The surface high will stay with us through the weekend and into the week as the ridge to the west gradually nudges the long wave trough away from the eastern half of the country. This should pave the way for temperatures to return to seasonal values – lows around 32 and highs around 52 – by Wednesday. I believe that will feel downright tropical in light of this extended cold spell we’re experiencing.
Along with the warm-up at mid week comes a strong short wave out of the Southwest US/northern Mexico which will bring us a wet event late Friday and Saturday. Timing this far out may change a bit but it appears that Friday will be a transition day – mostly dry but clouds on the increase – with rain Friday night and into Saturday. Since this is nearly a week away, we could see the timing of this shift a little later or earlier depending on the speed of development of this next rain-producing system. And I do expect it to be rain with the nice warm-up forecast for the middle of the week.
As the surface low moves across the northern Gulf and into the Atlantic late Saturday and Sunday, there is some potential for the precipitation to change over to snow. The GFS is suggesting a good deal of wrap around moisture with the cold air coming into the Southeast – not as cold as this present event, though. We’re certainly verging into voodoo country here, but the possibility does exist for another taste of some winter weather. This kind of system does not typically result in significant snowfalls for us.
Voodoo country remains active though the pace seems to be slightly slower. Looks like around dry period around the 21st with another wet system around the 24th. So the pattern remains active but not quite as fast as we’ve been seeing.
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I hope that you have a great Saturday. I’m off to the quarterly meeting of the Alabama Storytelling Association this afternoon over at The Summit. Stay warm and Godspeed.
-Brian-
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